Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .277” NPT 160 / Reloder 23

Anyone run this combination in the 270 Winchester during the last few hunting seasons?

Looking for load details, bullet performance reviews & your muzzle velocities.

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Nope, never have--but Alliant's data for the .270 and the 150 Partition lists 57.1 grains of RL-23 as maximum, for 2953 fps from a 24" barrel.

My guess, based on some experience with RL-23, is that 55 grains would get 2800+ with the 160 even from a 22" barrel, with excellent accuracy.

Nope, W780 here, which was the star before they dumped it. Still have an unopened jug for those.

Yeah, like when it came out, and I bought an 8 lb container on sale for like $140 or so at Sportsmans because it wasn't moving.

When I use my 270s, I shoot 3 bullets....

140 grain Ballistic Tip, 160 Nosler SMP Partition, and a 90 grain Sierra HP with a charge of 25 to 30 grains of RL 7 or 4198, that I lend to a younger kid, who I am taking hunting for the first time.. with Dad in tow.

Before RL 23, my two powders for the 270 were frequently RL 19, or H4831SC.

Oh and I am guilty that the 140 grain Ballistic Tips have seen the use of 4064, but that applies to almost anything that is a rifle that I shoot frequently or occasionly.

A very effective bullet but I loaded mine with RL26.

I'm using IMR7977 with the 160 NPt. Very good accuracy and hit max velocity before max listed powder charge--which always seems to be a good indicator of accuracy and long brass life. When I run out of IMR7977 I suppose I'll have to dive into my precious hoard of RL26.

One additional comment I'll make is a repeat of previous comments on various powders:

I live in Montana, which has the widest range of recorded temperatures of any state in the U.S, from -70 to +117 Fahrenheit. While I haven't hunted in quite that range, have from around -40 to +110.

While most modern rifle powders don't vary much in performance from the 20s to 80s Fahrenheit, many do beyond those parameters--which often results in changes in point-of-impact and accuracy. I know this from actually testing various powders in temperatures from around zero F. to over 100 degrees.

If anybody's hunting doesn't vary from the 20s to 80s, then the powder doesn't matter much--and even some parts of Alaska don't vary much from those parameters. But I would tend to use RL-23 over other powders mentioned (including RL-26) if any hunting would take place colder than around 20 degrees.

That's my thinking in building up these loads, ahead of my move to Montana in 2023. Have a 8 pounder of RL-23.

Have my long range bullet loading using the 150 grain ABLR all set, it's a RL-23 load. This 160 grain load will be my shorter range heavyweight.

The 130 Ballistic tip load for Pronghorn & Whitetail I'm planning on using some Reloder 16. Hopefully I can keep my old Tanger M_77 busy as I travel from Western Montana to the Eastern side.

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I have used the 160 NP quite a lot and prefer them over the 150’s. I load them to around 2800 out of my 22” barrel. Have used R26, R22, 4831sc. All loads are sufficiently accurate for shooting 275 yards or so.
Great bullet.

Used one over 56gr of W780 to kill a big doe about ten years back. That pre64 now is in the hands of my son, who’s taken, IIRC, three more with the same load, which is a couple of grains under max, but shoots very well and is plenty for typical ranges in this region. None of those deer traveled very far.

I suspect the 150s would do as well, and I have some on hand, but I always liked the business-like look of the heavy ones. My current .270, a 1948 FN likes them pretty well too, but is kinda heavy for an old fat man to tote around the hills.

I use H4831 with great accuracy

I shot the box up that I had, have not seen these for sale in years. The 160g Partition was a very accurate bullet in my Rem 700 sporter. The last buck I shot with that bullet was about 150 yards. I hit him about 6" behind the shoulder on a quartering shot. He ran full speed straight into a 12" pine tree, broke his neck and one side of his antlers. I loaded Nosler's most accurate load in the Manual #4.

Hi John,
Would your recommendation for RL-23 over RL-26 hold for larger cases like the .300 Weatherby with a 168 gr TTSX? I usually only elk hunt with that rifle and the temperatures sometimes fall below 20 F to single digits. RL-26 seems to do ok so far. Thanks in advance!

Never recovered a 140NP in any caliber. Have several 150's caught in dead stuff. Been thinking about a 160 but damn them 140's are whicked..

WAM,

I make my recommendation of RL-23 over RL-26 based on my own experience with 26 in one of my .270s with 150-grain Partitions. While according to Alliant 26 is supposed to be pretty temperature-resistant, it wasn't originally designed to be, as were RL-16 and RL-23.

When I ran my standard "cold" test with the 150 Partition load using RL-26, shooting a target and chronographing at both a "normal" and 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the point-of -mpact shifted 1.5" at 100 yards--equivalent to 6" at 400. This was apparently due to the muzzle velocity dropping around 60 fps.

Such impact shifts are the most common problem with temperature variations, but in some rifles they don't occur even with much larger drops in velocity. One example is Eileen's NULA .257 Roberts, which shoots the same handload using Ramshot Hunter with the 100-grain Barnes TTSX into the same POI at 100 yards at 70 degrees and 0 degrees, even though the load loses around 100 fps. This is probably due to the very stiff, full-bedded NULA stock.

But the .270 I used to test RL-26 and the 150 Partition is a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight with a slim, free-floated barrel, which did result in a significant POI shift.

Incidentally, I have found such temperature-induced POI shifts can occur in any direction, including sideways, depending on the rifle and load.

Might also mention that far more info on the effects of temperature on handloads (and some factory loads) can be found in Chapter 10 of The Big Book of Gun Gack II. This includes around 30 handloads for cartridges from the .17 Hornet to .375 H&H.

Thanks, John
The .300 Weatherby is the only cartridge I use RL26 in. I’ve only shot it at about 14 degrees F on the low end after the ammo can sat in the truck at -9 F overnight. I only shot 2 rounds to confirm zero and commenced to hit 200, 300, and 400 yard gongs at the Bears Ears Sportsman’s Club in Craig, Colorado, so it was not a very scientific cold weather trial. It was cold enough that hunt to freeze the balls off a brass monkey! I only fired 1 round that hunt at a little over 250 yards and it resulted in a dead elk hit pretty much where I aimed.

However, I will take your advice and transition that cartridge to RL23 or back to MagPro for cold weather hunts.

Cheers

If your rifle shoots to the same place with the RL-26 load at various temperatures, then there's no problem. As I mentioned in my other post, some rifles don't show any shift in POI even with a 100 fps change in muzzle velocity. Others will will only 50-60 fps change.

Might also mention that Magpro is not particularly temperature-resistant, either in my experience or that of the ballistic lab guys who worked at Western Powders before Hodgdon bought the company.

True fact: When I switched from MagPro to RL26, I got about 25 fps less MV but groups tightened up a bit. When I checked the POI between the two loads I found that the shift was just about an inch between loads. Never had that happen before!